Victory for LCC's Safer Lorries campaign as every local council provides cycling-awareness training for lorry drivers

Council lorry drivers in every London borough, and the City of London, will be offered Safer Urban Driving (SUD) courses, that include an on-bike session, as of this year.

Prior to this year, only some boroughs were offering the training, but years of behind-the-scenes lobbying and public campaigning have made this type of training the norm for local authorities.

Lorry collisions are the single biggest killer of London cyclists, with around half of all cycling fatalities in the capital involving HGVs.

LCC has learned, by examining borough funding allocations, that all 32 boroughs, and the City of London, have been allocated funding to provide drivers with training over the three years starting 2014/15.

The specialised training, coupled with improved lorry safety features, was at the heart of LCC’s Safer Lorries, Safer Cycling campaign in 2013, which encouraged thousands of Londoners to email their council leaders calling for better driver training and safety equipment on lorries.

Chief Executive Ashok Sinha said, "Thanks to the thousands of people who've contributed to our campaigning on this vital issue. We're delighted that many years of effort from our staff and volunteers has placed improving lorry safety closer to the heart of policy at every London council."

Prior to that, in 2010-11, our No More Lethal Lorries campaign saw over 10,000 people sign our petition calling for cyclist-awareness training at local councils.

Transport for London now includes both improved lorry safety features and Safer Urban Driving courses in its procurement contracts for freight services.

This is not yet the case in all boroughs and LCC will continue to lobby councils to follow the example set by TfL.

We are also backing official lobbying of the Department for Transport and EU to make Safer Urban Driving type courses compulsory for all lorry drivers.